The selfish electronic rivalry between sperm and the struggle for survival

The journey of the sperm to the egg in the process of reproduction for the human race, one of the fiercest races in human history, and the arrival of the sperm to the mucous layer of the cervix is considered as the start of the race's whistle to the unfertilized egg, which wipes out the chances of all runners to survive except one. As such, the genetic information that the male carries, competes with one another in the midst of the great race for the genetic material of other males, for some of them to reach the genetic material of the members of the following generations.

Existing research and experience continue to fascinate us with the details of this onslaught; For example, it was discovered that the movement of sperm inside the female body is more like the movement of hedgehogs in the water than the movement of a water snake, and some new research published in the journal "Science" revealed an unprecedented mechanism for the behavior of some sperm to achieve their organic benefit instead of aiming for safety The object as a whole.

Sperm - also known as gametes - are sex cells that carry half of the genetic material needed to create an embryo of one species. It was believed that sperm cells transport genetic material evenly across cytoplasmic bridges. These bridges standardize the conditions of the environment in which the sperm sample is located. But new research has found that a myriad of mammalian genetic material does not use these cytoplasmic bridges. The significance of this finding is that it conflicts with previous assumptions that all sperms should be functionally equivalent and have equal chances of reaching an egg.

Sperm compete more selfishly than we previously knew - competition for sperm reaching the mucous layer of the cervix - genetic material.

To reach this conclusion, the team compared the proportion of specific alleles (all types of a single gene, such as those responsible for eye color: brown, blue, or green) to more than 12,000 genes. From the samples they tested, it became clear that some of the sperms did not share their genotypes, and they labeled these geographical markers (GIMS).

Study co-author Robin Friedman said in an interview with "Inverse": “Sperms that differ functionally due to GIM sites; It can lead to the emergence of the so-called (the selfish gene), ”he continued, saying:“ Alleles are proliferating in abundance because they stimulate the sperm to race, not because it helps the sperm to survive. ”

This sounds like luxurious genetic rhetoric, and it might be easier to point out the importance of the study by mentioning the most prominent scientist in genetics: Gregor Mendel. Mendel is a scientist famous for his experiments with pea plants. 

This Austrian monk worked tirelessly in his garden and noticed how the crossbreeding of plants affected the height of the plant, the shape of the horn, and the color of the fruits. However, the law of genetic isolation that Mendel’s studies led to supplemented and challenged our perceptions even concerning the equitable random distribution of genetic material in the offspring of the parents.

This new information proves that the inheritance of alleles is not always random and that these types of sperm cells are more common than previously thought, yet they are still an overwhelming minority.

 The researchers hypothesize that the effect of GIM may be small, yet its presence is essential to the mammalian reproduction journey and genetic legacy.